Chapter Text
Blythe’s periods were irregular, therefore unpredictable. So when she quietly asked him for a pad through the crack of the lab’s bathroom door, it wasn’t exactly a surprise.
The poor girl had been constantly vomiting, refusing to go to the doctor and insisting that Leo could take care of everything right here. They’d pumped her full of fluids and some anti-nausea injectables, and she was all too happy to rub it in his face- she wasn’t sick. It was just that time of the month!
She’d been complaining of cramps, and then quickly rushed to the bathroom, leaving Donnie a bit unsure on how to proceed.
He scrolled through his phone but jumped when he heard a loud noise, like something rather large had fallen from a decent height. It wasn’t exactly a ‘crash’, but he still assumed it was Shelldon being a kid and knocking something over. He sighed.
Might as well check on Bee while I’m up.
The door was locked, and he understood- these were very personal matters, after all- but it was still a tad bit annoying. He didn’t try the knob, knowing it would be locked. “Bee?” He knocked. “Are you still feeling okay? Leo said you can have some Dramamine now if you think you need it.”
He frowned as he looked around the lab. “Shelldon?” He called out.
The drone whipped to his side and looked like he was Tokyo drifting through the air. “Whattup D-dawg! Whatcha need?”
“Did you knock something over?”
The little drone lowered an electronic eyelid, trying to express his confusion. “No way dude, what am I eleven? I’m a pro racer now Dee, have a little faith!” He aimed to prove his point as he flew up and twirled in the air.
But Donnie wasn’t watching.
“Blythe? I need you to answer me- answer my right now or I’m coming in- I’ll break the knob again if I have to, don’t you dare test me!”
Silence.
He tried not to panic as he rammed his shoulder into the door, holding the knob so hopefully it wouldn’t get thrown into her as it was ripped away from its hinges.
He threw the shredded door to the side and dropped to his knees as he saw her on the floor, cursing under his breath for not being quicker. He scooped up her limp body and started running towards the med bay. She’d fainted before, but that didn’t make it any less scary. “Shelldon- get Leo and meet us in the med bay!”
They busted through the lab doors and sped down the hall until they split up. He got into the bay and laid her down, trying to feel her pulse and measure it.
God, it was going so fast.
Too fast.
Leo shuffled in, rubbing his eyes. “Dude, I finally fell asleep and you decide-“ He glimpsed at the unconscious girl his brother was cradling. “Aw man, what’d she do now?!”
Donnie glared and clenched his jaw, but his throat tightened in fear as he spoke. “She…Bathroom, found her. Pulse-” Was all he could manage to choke out before his jaw locked and his larynx shut down completely.
“Okay, alright, don’t worry- we’ll get it taken care of.” Leo walked around the bed and pulled the oxygen mask down and placed it over her nose and mouth. “Can you hold this here while I get her vitals?” Donnie nodded and held the mask in place, watching him and studying his facial expressions.
They didn’t help.
“Okay, her pulse is a little too high for my liking and her blood pressure is kinda low…what uh…were you guys…doing anything? Something weird, or…physical?” He grimaced and braced for an answer he really didn’t want to hear.
Donnie glared at him, getting angrier, and signed ‘No’by slamming his index and middle finger into his thumb, harshly.
“Well don’t get mad at me! I’m trying to figure out what got her so riled up- what was she doing in the bathroom?”
‘Period’
“Ooooh…yeah, that explains a few things.” He put a finger on his chin as he pursed his lips and bobbed his head up and down. Donnie relaxed a smidge and nodded. “I wonder if the cramps just got really bad? Let me see-” He lifted up her shirt a smidge, exposing her belly and pressed his fingers in gently. He didn’t press far, but he was sure he felt movement- it was like…he could feel her lower belly pulsating and throbbing. “Damn- I’m so glad I have a penis.” He pulled her shirt back down. “Those are some gnarly cramps dude, I bet it got overwhelming and her body just got tired and shut down. You know as well as I do that she’s terrible at acknowledging her limitations.”
Donnie sighed and held her hand. The distress still ran heavily through him, but he was a bit calmer at least.
‘Midol’
“Yeah bud. I think that’s all we can really do right now. How warm is she? The amount of sweating she does will never cease to amaze me.”
Donnie laid the back of his hand over her cheeks. He signed ‘hot’, and they opted to take her sweatshirt off and turn on a fan. Donnie put the oxygen mask back up now that her breathing was regulated. They worked together on the sweatshirt, wrestling her arms and head out of it and then tugging it off as gently as they could. Leo pulled the sweatshirt off while Donnie’s hands stayed under her and lowered her back onto the bed.
Leo tossed the sweatshirt lazily on a nearby chair.
“We can get a heating pad once she’s a little cooler. Midol when she wakes up- Uh, I don’t suppose you have any? My stash has run dry due to my lack of ovaries.”
Donnie rolled his eyes and left for his lab.
Leo turned around as he heard the sweatshirt slide off the chair and onto the floor. He made a face, intrigued by the small noise it had made when it hit the ground. He looked around, as if to wait for someone to stop him, and then walked over to pick it up.
Something was hidden away in the pocket.
He shrugged and pulled out the strangely shaped thing (he deemed his nosey behavior completely valid, the girl and the slider had no secrets and no shame) and then proceeded to yelp and throw the thing across the room.
He froze in a defensive position, as if the plastic might come back for him.
He opened an eye.
He shuddered.
It was still there.
He looked back at his friend, the plus sign on the test taking over his brain…Leo was not very familiar with the ways of women, but he knew a pregnancy test when he saw one.
Now things definitely made sense.
He stood there, frozen in thought and then heard Donnie’s footsteps returning. He panicked and sprinted to where the test had been thrown, sliding across the floor and almost passing it with the momentum before snatching it up to hide in his own pocket.
Donnie walked in, blinking in surprise and making a face, wondering why his brother was just standing in an empty corner on the opposite side of the room. But ultimately just shook his head- there was no time to question Leo’s shenanigans. The bottle rattled as his hand twitched and stimmed- but then he realized it was actually a bit loud, therefore less soothing and might wake Blythe up in a rude kind of way.
Leo walked over next to where he was standing, looking over the bed and trying not to fidget. “Well, I guess we can let her sleep. Nothing like a nap forced on you by your own brain.” He scoffed, struggling to find the humor that usually flowed easily.
Excuse him if his mind was a bit preoccupied.
Donnie took a deep breath and nodded, but his brow stayed furrowed. He hated this feeling. He hated when things took too long to fix, and he hated it even more when he couldn’t do anything about it. He crawled up next to her and slid one arm under her neck, pulling his forearm up so her body turned into his just a little bit. He placed his other hand gently under her shirt and on her lower belly, where the betraying organ lived. He winced as he felt it- no wonder she was out. It was like her belly was pulsating, tremoring with her heart’s beating.
He recalled many months ago, when the cramps had been bad, and she’d melted at his touch. Now she sought it out during times like these- the cool feeling of his skin on her belly was nice, and his body heat covered everywhere else. It wasn’t much. But at least he was doing something.
Leo watched his brother, his heart pounding. He felt a lot of things as the plus sign from earlier flashed into vision again- the plus sign that Donnie obviously did not know about.
But what he felt most was fear.
How could his brother possibly be ready for this?
…
Blythe woke up feeling warm.
Too warm.
She kept her eyes closed, aching for sleep to take her back, but it was pointless. She jerked out of Donnie’s arms suddenly and had no time to figure out where she was, instead being forced to lean over the side of the bed and- luckily someone had foreseen this- finding a small trash can lined with a bag. She pulled her legs over the side of the bed and fell to the floor, trying not to wake the snoring turtle taking up a decently large part of the bed. She stayed hovering over the trash, panting from the abrupt and gross awakening.
She took that moment to figure out where I was. The med-bay…She had fainted.
She had fainted because…
She vomited into the trash can.
Maybe it was a dream? She’d had dreams like this often- and for whatever reason her sleeping mind was very good at convincing her it was all real. Sometimes she’d even dream that she woke up, therefore convincing her sleeping conscious further that the following dream logically had to be real.
Okay…where would the test be if this was real.
Sweatshirt.
Find sweatshirt, find test, confirm invalid dream and go back to sleep.
She ran her hands over her chest and stomach and confirmed that she was in fact not wearing a sweatshirt.
Phew. Invalidity proven.
She felt an enormous weight lift as the anxiety in her chest evaporated, finally allowing a deep sigh of relief.
She opted to try and look for the Dramamine. She was tired of the acidic burn in her throat and the gnawing hunger despite the inability to keep anything down. She found the bottle and fought the urge to double the dose-
She was so over the puking.
She dumped the pills into her hand and pulled a nearby blanket over her shoulders like a cape to walk to the kitchen. She wasn’t a fan of dry swallowing pills, so water would be good, and…maybe a snack. Apparently her stomach was over the puking too.
She sighed as she realized she was going to have to go another day without taking her normal meds- there was no point in even trying if they were just going to come back up. The thyroid ones wouldn’t make a huge difference in the short run but lacking the anxiety/depression meds was definitely going to start showing in her mood and behavior today.
She walked into the kitchen and was incredibly grateful for the creation of fuzzy socks, despite recently feeling overheated. The tile was cold even through the socks and if she’d been barefoot she may have had to retreat completely.
She turned the light on and squinted as her eyes adjusted, going off of memory to get to the cups and then the fridge. This one had one of those built-in water filters, (genius built, of course) so she was able to get water, take the meds, and then open the door and search for snacks all in one go.
She scanned the shelves, noting that her usual favorites suddenly seemed unappealing. She eyed the pickles. And the strawberries. And then the cream cheese. They all seemed to pass the nausea test, and she figured she might as well take all of them just in case one of them ended up being a fluke.
The energy to toast a bagel wasn’t there, so a cold one was quickly thrown together. She snacked on it while she went back to the fridge, crossing her fingers and…almost jumping for joy when she found what she was looking for-
Whipped cream!
She took the creamy treasure back to the table, abandoning the bagel and spraying the cream onto a strawberry. She really tried to go slow, but the sugary treat on top of the sweet and tangy fruit was unbearable to enjoy slowly with her stomach so empty.
“I hope you realize that I am not holding your hair back when that comes back up- the bestie has no responsibility to do such things.”
She almost choked on the berry and knocked the can of whipped cream off the table, twisting around towards the source of the jump scare. Leo was already next to her, catching the can before it hit the ground and walking idly around the table as he leaned his head back and sprayed some straight into his mouth. “Eww…but give it back. I need that.” She demanded.
His cheeks were puffed up and she thought it actually looked very funny, the way his bright red stripes expanded with and over them. “This is my house. Therefore, my whipped cream. You have no rights here she-demon.” He strolled back over and sat next to her. “Pickles huh? And berries, and a bagel? You just wanted to take a culinary field trip I guess?” And it almost seemed accusing, the way he said it.
“Look, I haven’t kept anything down in like 2 days, I don’t care what my stomach wants at this point.” She snatched the can back and continued with the berries. He fidgeted, uneasily. “What’s your beef? And why’re you up so late? I mean, I know sleeping isn’t something you do a ton of, but you still usually hide in your room. So, what’s up?”
He shifted around in his chair, switching between crossed one knee over the other, then not, then pulling them under him on the chair. “I just…nothing. But uh, we haven’t had a one on one in a while.” She paused and considered it, then nodded head and shrugged. He had a point. She wondered if maybe he just needed to get something juicy off of his chest. “Wanna pack up your peculiar snack combo and talk in my room?”
“Oooh, a tea session where no one can butt in? Dang Nardo, it must be really good.” She grinned and wiggled her eyebrows teasingly, but his smile seemed strained. “Or…really bad?” She gave him a concerned look.
“No no…it’s not bad. It’s just…” He took a deep breath. “Kind of intense, I guess.”
She narrowed her eyes in suspicion, but her curiosity got the best of her. She gathered the pickle jar and the whipped cream, abandoning the rest of the snack collection and putting the berries back in the fridge and then tossing the bagel remains. He raised a brow but didn’t say anything.
They walked to his room, and she hopped up onto his bed, feeling buzzed with energy from the small amount of food she’d been able to keep down. Leo put a bucket at the foot of the bed on the floor, and she huffed, at the reminder hoping she wouldn’t need it.
“So…anything new lately? Anything exciting? Worthy of an infamous Leo and Blythe tea session?” He started, and she furrowed her brow, blinking at him dumbly.
“You’re the one that wanted to talk doofus. You’re the one with the tea. It’s rude to keep a lady waiting.” She stabbed a fork into the pickle jar, spearing on and crunching on it as she waited. “What’s with you? Do you need wine- is this a wine worthy thing? Ooooh please let it be wine worthy! Okay, okay, don’t tell me.” She set the jar on the side table and quickly untangled her crossed legs. She trotted over and opened his top drawer, bypassing some of the random junk in there and bringing the bottle they had on standby for special occasions out. She sat back on the bed anxiously and grew more intrigued, because a quiet Leo was such a rare occurrence. And he said it wasn’t bad…so it must’ve been uber juicy.
He was squinting as she handed him the bottle. She met his stare with her own confused one. “What?”
He continued his suspicious glaring but shook his head slowly.
“You are really starting to stress me out, what the hell has you so tense?” She put a hand on his, shifting into a serious tone. “Leo, are you okay? You’re acting really weird. You can tell me, whatever it is. You know that.”
He took a deep breath and nodded, but now he was looking down.
“Here- I’ll get the ball rolling if that makes it easier.” She cleared my throat and started telling him about the coworker that had suddenly decided that because she had sprained her ankle last month she could no longer help around the clinic. “I mean seriously! There is so much you can do around there, stuff you can do while you sit down and don’t use your ankle! Run labs, fold laundry, clean instruments! It’s like, hello, you know we all have medical training right? We know how bones work and we know it shouldn’t still be affecting you this much!” She huffed and crossed her arms, all riled up now. “Anyways, I’ve been picking up the slack and I’m just a little peeved.”
He nodded in understanding. “That sucks Bee- and I can’t believe she’s ballsy enough to check her email.” He snorted at the thought.
“While I was cleaning right next to her!” The girl huffed again and snatched the untouched bottle away from him. He may not have wanted it yet, but thinking about stupid Jessica was really taking her out. She put it to her lips and started leaning back-
-and suddenly it was not in her hands anymore.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
She brought her eyes back down to a very frantic looking Leo. She stared at him.
“Uhh, rude. I just re-lived a lot of stress in order to spill to you. Gimme that,” She reached for it, but he held it far away with his stupid, annoyingly long arms.
“You know as well as I do that you can’t have this! What on earth is wrong with you?!” He huffed and stomped off the bed and put the wine bottle back. “I didn’t think you were actually going to drink any!” He was pacing now, throwing his arms around.
She blinked. “Where was this passion when we started talking? You’ve been so quiet, what’s the matter with you?! I’m already puking, I might as well be drunk while I puke!” She frowned, thinking he was taking this medic thing way too seriously. The whole point of alcohol was to unwind. She scoffed and crossed her arms.
“Oh come on Blythe! I know, okay? Stop playing stupid and acting like this isn’t happening. I stayed quiet because that felt like the respectful thing to do, but I will absolutely go snitch to Donnie if you don’t stop it right now.” He stomped his foot and crossed his arms.
“Uhh…not to brush the threat off, but Donnie is very aware that I am of the legal drinking age. But if you wanna go wake him up, lemme know how that goes.” She was throwing the humor in to try and cover up her confused irritation with him.
“You’re really gonna do this?”
She blinked again, growing more and more distressed. “Do what? Leo, what the hell are you talking about- we drink all the time. I don’t understand why this time would be any-“ He shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out a flat white…thing, with a pink cap. “…different.” She made a face so he would know she had no clue what he was doing or why. “What…what is that?” She asked, starting to feel an anxious tingling.
He looked pissed now, rolling his eyes and storming over, flinging it into her lap. She shook her head and let out a humorless laugh. “That’s very funny Nardo. That’s not mine.”
“Then why was it in your sweatshirt pocket?”
She froze, feeling every single hair stand at attention and the blood drain from her face. “What did you just- what?” She snatched the stick up and stared at it.
That was a fucking plus sign. “No. Nonononononono. That was a dream- not real. It wasn’t real, I- what is this?” She looked up at him, starting to panic and hoping he had answers. Or maybe this was a prank? Another dream?
He reached down and shook the test in her face. “Pregnancy tests don’t materialize from dreams Blythe! Look, I’ve already seen it, you don’t have to-“
She pushed him out of the way and leaned to the side, violently hurling into the bucket. She was panting and gasping as it came out, unable to feel it and only able to focus on the stupid plus sign. She squeezed her eyes shut and kept her face hidden in the bucket. “It’s not real, that’s not real. It’s not real Leo, tell me it’s not real.” Her desperate pleas echoed into the bucket.
Silence.
She felt his hand start rubbing her back, trying his best to soothe her. “You…you really thought it was a dream?”
She felt the tears rolling down and brought her face out from its hiding spot in the bucket. “It was a dream! It was a dream Leo!”
He looked at her with great sympathy and pulled her into a tight hug, despite the ugly sobs and her shaking body. She clung to him, squeaking, trying to get the words out, “It’s not real, it’s not real, it can’t be real-”
He squeezed her and put his hand on the back of her head. “I’m so sorry Blythe…I thought you were just pretending, I thought…I’m sorry.”
They sat there on the floor, holding each other…well, really Leo held Blythe and kept her from melting into the floor. She was clinging to him in a desperate attempt to ground herself and separate reality from dreamland. He just kept squeezing her in hopes of bringing some sort of comfort. He held on tightly until she calmed down- still leaking tears, just not so forcefully anymore. He pulled back and looked at her, then sighed and scooped her up. He set her on the bed like it was nothing and then sat across from her, keeping her hands in his. “I know it’s scary, but I’m here. We can figure it out. And I can help you tell Donnie, if you want.”
The words sounded comforting, but the girl was snatching the bucket up again, and even though there wasn’t much left in mher stomach, it continued to expel.
“Oh fuck I have to tell Donnie-“ She coughed and sputtered. “Oh god, oh god oh god oh god-“
“Wh- wait a minute! Sorry- I wasn’t trying to upset you- okay, uh…um…” He pinched his lips together and thought. “Uh, let’s focus on the positive, huh? Uh…baby turtles are so cute. I mean, you’ve seen my baby pictures, so we know that’s factual.” He put on one of his smug grins and then heard her breath catch in her throat again.
“Oh FUCK it’s going to be a turtle human hybrid thing!”
He frowned. “You know, I kinda figured this was a safe topic given that you know how genetics work and you’re aware that Donnie is in fact a turtle. I just thought it was a given at this point.”
“We didn’t even think we could get pregnant! I mean, we talked about trying one day- but that was supposed to be a long time from now! And we haven’t talked about what the hell growing a turtle inside my body is going to do to me! What if I can’t even carry it because the shell cuts me open or something?!” She put her hands on her head, completely giving in to the panic.
“Okay, well, first of all, it would be a softshell hybrid. So. No hard shell.” He gave an unsure grin, trying to gauge if he was helping at all. “And think about how excited Dee’s gonna be, you always told me how scared you were about never getting to have kids and here you are!”
I sniffled. “Yeah but, I don’t think we’re…ready to have kids. I just got certified, and Donnie hasn’t done nearly enough research for either of our liking. We’re not going to have any clue what we’re doing!”
He looked down at his hands and then looked up at her with wide, hopeful eyes. “Can I do something?”
She sniffled again, but nodded, desperate for a distraction. He took her hand and held it at the wrist, picking it up and pressing her open palm against her belly.
And there it was.
It wasn’t like, a kick or anything. It was like a pulsing kind of feeling, but more intense than what she usually felt during periods. He looked at her and offered a gentle smile. She stared at him with wide eyes, unsure how to feel.
“We can figure out what to do tomorrow. I think you need to get some sleep.”
“But I already-“
“Bee, you got like 3 hours of sleep at most. You wanna go back to the med-bay with Donnie?” He offered, still holding her hand in his. She shook her head. “Okay. Good. We haven’t had a sleepover in forever, so this is well overdue.” It was unfortunately true. She’d started having sleepovers with Donnie forever ago, and would occasionally spend a night in Leo’s room. They would drink and talk and argue over who was hotter- Edward or Jacob. (They were both partial to Jacob, but Leo like to play devil’s advocate and talk Edward up too sometimes)
She laid down and curled up, hugging one of his pillows. He threw a blanket over her and put his hand on her shoulder as he leaned over. “It’ll be okay. We’ll figure it out tomorrow.” He fell back with his head on the opposite end of the bed, his toes tapping against her back as he restlessly waved his feet and they both stared up at the ceiling. “So…Leo’s a pretty good name. Just sayin’.”
Despite all of the emotions and tears, she couldn’t help but release a wet laugh. He seemed satisfied that he’d finally gotten her to laugh, and she turned over to smack his foot. “We’ll see doofus. We’ll see.”